Drawing from in-depth interviews with public workforce and homeless service systems leaders and the work of our five Connections Project sites, this paper identifies common barriers to public workforce and homeless service systems collaboration and recommends how to address these barriers in order to help ensure that homeless and unstably housed jobseekers can access economic opportunity and stabilize in housing.

Preventing & Ending Homelessness through Employment: Lessons Learned & Pathways Forward A national summit in collaboration with Heartland Alliance, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Funders Together to End Homelessness along with the support of the Melville Charitable Trust and the Oak Foundation.

These are Heartland Alliance's comments in response to the USDA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) time limit. As these comments reflect, Heartland Alliance is deeply concerned by attempts to further restrict food assistance to the individuals whom we serve. SNAP is the country's most important anti-hunger program. We strongly support the goal of helping SNAP participants obtain and keep quality jobs that enable them to achieve economic security. However, we believe the restrictions suggested in the ANPRM would only result in more people losing their SNAP benefits, which will make it harder to achieve this goal. Furthermore, the questions posed in the ANPRM 1) appear to be based on the assumption that many SNAP participants simply do not want to work, which we know to be untrue and 2) overlook the reality that many individuals receiving nutrition assistance face multiple barriers to work that reflect personal challenges such as education or skills gaps and more insidious structural labor market barriers such as discrimination in the labor market.

This webinar outlined the current and potential threats to basic assistance programs with a specific focus on work requirements; provided an on-the-ground perspective about how imposing work requirements in exchange for basic supports will hurt low-income individuals and especially people of color; and shared communications tools and tactics for how to reframe the work requirements narrative and advocate for positive strategies to end chronic unemployment and poverty.
Moderator: Melissa Young of Heartland Alliance's National Initiatives on Poverty & Economic Opportunity
Panelists: Elizabeth Lower-Basch of Center on Law and Social Policy, Ronald Johnson of Heartland Alliance Health, and Rebecca Vallas of Center for American Progress

This webinar provided an overview of the current subsidized employment landscape, explored a new policy proposals for a national subsidized employment strategies, and lifted up lessons learned from implementing these strategies in communities. We hope this conversation helps to build momentum for a national subsidized employment program and similar policy solutions that can help reduce poverty by ensuring that all people can access and succeed in work.
Panelists: Melissa Young of Heartland Alliance's National Initiatives on Poverty & Economic Opportunity, Meghan Ladwig of the Office of Senator Tammy Baldwin, Kali Grant and Indivar Dutta-Gupta of Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, and Julie Kerksick of Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

This webinar discussed why federal infrastructure investments matter and how these investments can advance equity and economic opportunity; lifted up examples of infrastructure projects already underway that are improving communities and investing in workers who face barriers to employment; and shared guiding principles for fair and equitable federal infrastructure investments.
Panelists: Lisa Cylar Barrett of PolicyLink, Jeff Carroll of Details Deconstruction/Humanim, Andrew Simons of the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works, John Anderson of Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP)/BIG STEP, and Melissa Young of Heartland Alliance's National Initiatives on Poverty & Economic Opportunity.

SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) funding represents a potentially useful but underutilizedresource for states and communities to deliver employment services to the people who need themthe most. SNAP holds special potential for supporting efforts to prevent and end homelessnessthrough access to employment and earned income.This guide is intended to help community-based organizations and other employment serviceproviders that serve people experiencing homelessness to 1) determine whether SNAP E&Tfunding is a good fit for their organizations, 2) determine whether their state is set up to partner withservice providers to access E&T funding, and 3) learn how to advocate for SNAP E&T access andexpansion to serve homeless jobseekers.

This infographic makes the case that imposing work requirements in exchange for basic assistance does not increase access to employment, income, and economic opportunity and offers alternative solutions.

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